Update: May 25, 2006
«©NCSX» With the original Talkman software that was released last year, SCE knocked the Tower of Babel down a notch with a PSP translation application which handled English, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. The earlier Talkman release still sells well and a few thousand units are shifted every week. To conquer the European continent, a new version of Talkman ships this week which translates between English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. The goofy bird named Max returns to reprise its role as the application's intermediary. To help travelers handle situations in various settings, the software features phrases that are suitable for 28 different settings - for example, if you're in a restaurant, a selection of applicable phrases appear such as "I'm a reluctant vegetarian" or "Please take this steak back to the incinerator from where it came from." Other settings include the hotel, at the slopes, and even when you're on the prowl inside a nightclub. While the success rate of finding love by way of PSP is still unknown, it could work if the pick up lines are selected with savvy. Lots of liquor may also help your cause. In addition to straightforward translation, Talkman also helps language learners with pronunciation and listening exercises to hone your inner Babelfish. NCS Product Preorder Synopsis
«©NCSX» Talkman is a piece of translation software which uses a goofy bird named Max as the conversion applet interface. The languages supported are: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. The menus may be changed to any of the supported languages and translations may be performed in any direction. For example, English to German, Spanish to Italian, French to Japanese, etc. To use the software as an English speaking person to converse with a Spanish person, speak in English into the plug-in microphone (included) and Max will translate the dialogue into Spanish and say it to the person you're trying to communicate with. Once Max has spoken, the microphone will pick up the reply from the Spanish speaking person and Max will once again translate the spoken words into English. In essence, Max is a fairly adept interpreter who can handle 3,000 general phrases such as "Where is the bathroom" but convoluted dialogue such as "The allure of the El Prado Museum sings to me" will stump Max. In addition to the voice recognition/translation application, the Talkman software includes a rudimentary language tutor, a measurement conversion utility, an alarm clock and a note recorder for reciting memos. Every copy of the game includes a slim microphone which plugs into the USB port of the PSP. There's a little dial on the left side of the mic which adjusts the audio level (pickup) for voices. Unless someone is speaking very softly, we found that the midrange setting worked well but in crowd situations with loud background noise, the higher audio level was necessary. View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website. Jan Code: 4948872101875 This document is ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part of this document may be made without express written consent of National Console Support, Inc.
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